22 historic moments of the 2022 baseball season

Albert Pujols' run at the 700 home run club and Aaron Judge's assault on the American League record were just a couple of 2022 historic moments.

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Albert Pujols and Aaron Judge captured baseball fans' attention as they successfully chased a career milestone and an American League single season home run record, respectively.

But the year that stumbled out of the blocks following a 99-day lockout had much more than the 4.8 miles of home runs off Judge's bat. 

Some of the history-makers might be obvious, but there were plenty of suprlatives this season, from Pujols and Judge to Shohei Ohtani and the Mets' ability to take one - or, more accurately, more than 100 - for the team. 

A look at 22 milestones for 2022:

1. Pujols joins 700 home run club

Pujols entered the year 21 home runs shy of the 700 milestone, but he had hit just 23 in the two previous seasons combined. Shortly after the All-Star break, Pujols seemed to discover his mid-career form and hit No. 699 and 700 by Sept. 23.

2. Judge topples Maris with No. 62

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge homered over the left-field wall off Texas Rangers pitcher Jesus Tinoco, and at 7:08 p.m. CT on Oct. 4, became the American League home run king with his 62nd home run of the season, surpassing former Yankee Roger Maris’ record set 61 years ago in 1961. Judge was also on track to win the triple crown, but his batting average took a hit in the final week, leaving him with the American League's home run and RBI titles as Minnesota's Luis Arraez claimed the batting title.

3. Pujols joins the 2,200 RBI club

With his 703rd home run of the season, Pujols surpassed Babe Ruth for No. 2 on baseball's career RBI list. When asked by USA TODAY if there's any statistic that he's most proud of, Pujols says it's RBIs. He drove in 2,218 runs in his career. The only others in MLB history with more than 2,200: Aaron (2,297) and Ruth (2,214).

4. Super-size playoffs

The wild-card games are dead, replaced after a decade-long run, by best-of-three series in which the higher seed hosts all the games. The top two division winners in each league, in a nod to regular season achievement, receive first-round byes and await the survivor of the top two wild-card qualifiers in the Division Series.

5. Longest postseason drought ends

Seattle’s berth ended the longest active playoff drought in any of the four major professional sports, a dubious honor that now falls to the Sacramento Kings, who have not made the NBA playoffs since the 2005-06 season. The Mariners remain the only current team that has never played in the World Series.

6. Just 11 players hit .300

The fewest players hit .300 in a season since the "Year of the Pitcher" in 1968, when only six players batted .300. During the following offseason, MLB lowered the pitcher's mound and shrunk the strike zone, trying to juice batting averages and scoring. Next season, bases will be a few inches wider – effectively shortening the base paths and perhaps adding a few points to batting averages. 

7. Balk, Balk, Balk

Richard Bleier becomes the seventh pitcher to ever balk three times in the same inning and the first since Jim Gott did it in 1988.

8. Pujols dings record number of pitchers

In all, 458 pitchers served up at least one home run to Pujols, topping Barry Bonds for home runs off the most pitchers by seven. Ten pitchers gave up five or more home runs to Pujols; Ryan Dempster with eight and Wade Miller, six, lead them all. Randy Johnson, Roy Oswalt and Carlos Zambrano top a list of eight others who have given up five. Baseball Reference has compiled all 458 pitchers. This is not a short scroll:

9. Runs, Runs, Runs

The Dodgers, with a +334 run differential, are the first team since the 2001 Seattle Mariners to reach the +300 mark and just the 10th in history. 

10. Historic turnaround 

The Orioles became the first team to win at least 80 games after losing 110 the following season. 

11. Ks, Ks, Ks

Braves rookie Spencer Strider needed only 130 innings to reach 200 strikeouts this year, fastest than any pitcher in baseball history, besting Randy Johnson’s record of 130 2/3 in 2001. 

12. Ouch!

The Mets broke the modern hit by pitch record (106 times) and Buck Showalter amusingly asked for the ball.

13. Loss, Loss, Loss, etc.

Washington Nationals pitchers went through a record-breaking 43 consecutive games without a starter registering a win. No surprise that the Nationals finished with the majors' worst record of 55-107, also their worst since moving to Washington.

14. 20-20 catcher

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto – with 22 home runs and 21 stolen bases –  became the second catcher, after Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez, to produce a 20-20 season. 

15. Longest pitcher-catcher duo

Between April 6, 2007, and Sept. 14, Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina made the most starts as a battery in MLB history, besting the record set by Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan with 324 starts between 1963-75.

16. Top Oriole prospect sets rookie record

Adley Rutschman did not debut until May 21, yet still set a Baltimore Orioles rookie record with 35 doubles and led the team with 65 walks. 

17. No. 1 in quality

Astros left-hander Framber Valdez set a single-season record with 25 consecutive quality starts, a span in which he pitched far better than the six innings and three runs required to meet that criteria each outing. Valdez went 15-4 with a 2.41 ERA and gave up just nine home runs from April 25 to Sept. 18.

18. Complete dominance

Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara threw six complete games, most in the majors since Chris Sale in 2016 and more than every other team this season. Thirteen teams did not pitch a complete game.

19. Shohei Ohtani, Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani became the first player to qualify for the league leaders as both a batter and a pitcher in a single season, and with 15 wins and 34 home runs, the first player to win at least 10 games and hit at least 30 home runs.

20. WAR: A band of brothers

Cardinals stars Nolan Arenado (7.9) and Paul Goldschmidt (7.8) and Tommy Edman (6.2) each finished in the top 10 in WAR, as calculated by Baseball-Reference, the first time a trio of teammates accomplished that feat.

21. The Naylor brothers 

Catcher Bo Naylor and first baseman Josh Naylor became the first set of brothers to play in the same game for Cleveland since Roberto and Sandy Alomar in 2000. 

22. Wins, Wins, Wins

The Dodgers won 111 games, most by a National League team in the live ball era.

Contributing: The Associated Press, Bob Nightengale

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